


like real people do

by arukana



Series: livyatan melvillei [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Dishonored AU, M/M, Royalty AU, Swordfighting, fluffy banter that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 01:50:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21245534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arukana/pseuds/arukana
Summary: Ren wants to teach Goro how to fight. Goro already knows how to fight.





	like real people do

**Author's Note:**

> for context, this is part of a bigger thing i may or may not be writing to post at some point. hope everyone's played dishonored!

When Ren asks Goro to come with him to the gardens, and then leads him behind a secluded area behind one of the greenhouses, Goro thinks he’s planning a risky rendezvous. He doesn’t try to stop him from taking his hand and pulling, though he thinks it’s a horrible idea, doesn’t even bring up the fact that they definitely shouldn’t while they make their way outside. Maybe the idea of everyone knowing is growing on Goro.

More likely, Ren’s just awakened something horrible in him.

It’s surprising, then, when Ren lets go of his hand and moves to peer over the nearby table. The back of the greenhouse is one of the uglier parts of Dunwall Tower, all concrete, weeds poking through the cracks, and leftover bags of dirt that are ripped and spilling over. Nobody really has reason to come out here; maybe they did once before the greenhouses were built, but its only function now is as a wind tunnel. Ren really could’ve warned him. He’d have dressed warmer.

It smells better than it looks, the chill mixing with the crisp smell of greenery, a bit too fresh for Goro’s tastes but pleasant even so. He doesn’t get to smell it for long, however, his nose going red and stuffy in the air.

“Um,” Goro shuffles awkwardly on his feet, watching Ren fiddle with something.  The noise catches Ren’s attention, he gives Goro a look and a raised brow,  “Are we here for any particular reason?”

Ren smirks, “I was wondering how long it’d take you to ask.”

“I have things that require my attention,” Goro says, ignoring him, “I hope it won’t take long.”

“Have I ever wasted your time before?”

Goro blinks, “Is that a rhetorical question?”

“You wound me,” he says, grabbing the thing he was messing with from the table and holding it out for Goro to take.

It’s a sword. He gives Ren a confused stare, “Why are you giving me this?”

“I’m gonna teach you how to fight,” he pulls his own sword out from his belt under his jacket, spinning it in his hand to show off.

Goro rolls his eyes, “Why?”

“For protection.”

“So I can do your job, you mean?”

“What if I’m indisposed? You’ll be at the mercy of whatever evil crook tries it.”

Goro groans, studying the blade in his hand. It’s lightweight. recently sharpened and still smelling of iron, though that hasn’t helped much; it must be an old one Ren had lying around, nothing like they have stored away in the armoury, nothing like the blade Ren is currently wielding. “Shouldn’t I have yours?”

“No,” Ren says far too quickly. Goro quirks a brow, “Not that I don’t trust you, but- well. Actually, yeah, I don’t really trust you to not accidentally hit me with that sword.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you not to hit me?”

“I’m a professional.”

Spluttering a laugh, Goro has to cover his mouth, “You?”

“_Hey_.”

“Forgive me, but that’s the funniest thing you’ve said all week.”

“Are you any more qualified than me?”

Goro  _ absolutely  _ is, “No.”

“Then shut up, and let me teach you.”

Goro holds up his hands as if to tell Ren to go ahead. Ren gives him a placating smile, placing his own sword on the table as he comes around behind Goro. “‘Kay, so, I usually hold mine like this,” he puts his hands over Goro’s, manhandling him. It’s wrong, Goro thinks, as he lets Ren put his hands on top of one another near the beginning of the hilt. He pulls until Goro’s arms have the sword close to his hip, blade pointing upward.

“Are you sure my elbow is supposed to be locked like this?” Goro knows it isn’t.

He feels Ren nod into his shoulder, “Yeah, ‘course.”

“Right,” and he has to suppress the urge to laugh.

Ren keeps adjusting him, most of it incorrect, though Goro does get to feel a swell of pride whenever he gets something right. Either way, it’s not like he would ever complain about having Ren touch him like this. He pushes his back into Ren’s chest, seeing how far he’ll let him go, and it's not like Goro has a particular need to focus right now anyway.

“Put your left foot forward,” Ren says as he nudges him into position with his own foot. Goro’s left-handed, and Ren’s apparently forgotten, so all of this has been wrong from the start. “Angle yourself slightly away from the opponent, so you have more space to put force into your swing.”

It makes sense, in theory, it’s not right, but Goro can see why he’d think that. It’s worrying, really, that this is the best the Abbey has to offer. More worrying still, that this is Goro’s Royal Protector.

Oh. This is Goro’s Royal  _ Protector _ . And he doesn’t even know how to hold a sword.

“Just, stand like that okay?” Ren’s hands run across his front to hold Goro in an embrace for a moment.

It’s nice, and not just in the way that Ren’s a nice shield against the wind. It’s nice the way it always is, like Ren’s an extension of Goro that he’d forgotten until now, like he never wants him to let go.

“And how would I attack?”

“Well,” Ren kisses his cheek, “you sort of just bring your sword up. Don’t go for the stab unless you want to really hurt someone.”

“And to block?” Goro rests his head backwards, on Ren.

“That really depends on which way they swing for you,” he shrugs, kissing down the space Goro has created for him at his neck. And maybe Goro would let him keep going if he didn’t think the idea of knocking Ren on his ass was so amusing.

“Are you trying to distract me so that you can win?” it’s kind of working.

“Assuming that I’m going to fight you?”

“How else am I to learn?”

“Alright,” he smiles, leaving one more kiss underneath Goro’s ear, “fine.”

Goro doesn’t correct himself right away, if anything he pretends to slouch more under the sword’s weight, really playing up the novice. “It’s heavy,” he complains, watching Ren smirk and pick up his own blade.

“Priss.”

“You shouldn’t insult someone with a sharp weapon in their hands.”

“I’d hardly call it sharp,” Ren chuckles, “besides, you couldn’t hit me even if you tried,” he blinks, reappearing a few steps to the left.

“That’s not fair, you can’t use that to win.”

“Why not?”

“It’s cheating. Who am I going to get into a fight with that can do what you can?”

Ren grins at him as he settles into his fighting stance, “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

His stance really is as bad as Goro expected, given the lesson he’s just had. It’s strange, how he’s never seen it before, never had reason to. Maybe Goro should've given him a better background check. Who knows? Maybe it works for him. Though he had, by his own admission, said he was better in a gunfight. It definitely checks out.

Goro adjusts, to make up for Ren’s movement, still maintaining the entirely wrong stance even if it physically pains him. “Last chance to back out.”

“Shouldn’t I be saying that?” Goro just raises a brow in further question, “It’s your funeral.”

Waiting, Goro gives Ren a look, making tiny movements into the correct stance so that he won’t notice. His hands separate, one at each end of the hilt, shifting his hips to face Ren proper. He moves, immediately, when Ren swings, easily blocking the hit. Ren wasn’t really  _ trying _ , Goro can tell, not trying like Sae used to. Sae would come at him ferociously, and Goro liked that she never treated him like he was fragile. Although, he had come out of their fights with a few more cuts and scrapes than he had going in most of the time.

“Beginner’s luck?” he offers, setting his jaw as he pushes back against Ren’s sword. Ren stumbles, but quickly rights himself and scoffs.

He comes at Goro again, with more force this time, but now Goro’s standing properly, he blocks easily, parrying him, knocking both him and his sword sideways. It leaves him open to attack, and they both know it, but Goro doesn’t move. All he does is smirk as Ren wobbles frustratedly. 

“Best two out of three?” he’s laughing now, watching the understanding dawn on Ren’s face.

“How do you…” Ren trails off, and Goro responds with a single finger to his lips. He switches his stance, putting his right foot forward and tossing the sword to his other hand.

“Not bad for my non-dominant hand,” he brags, cracking his neck.

“You’re such an asshole!”

“Yep,” Goro grunts as Ren comes to hit him again. There’s something actually furious in it now, not that Goro blames him, or feels particularly scared by the action, though maybe he should. Again, Goro parries, knocking his sword to the right, but this time he plants a foot on Ren’s chest and knocks him over.

The surprise of it makes him drop his sword, and it loudly clatters against the concrete. Goro wastes no time in straddling Ren, holding his sword against Ren’s throat. “Do you yield?”

“No.”

“I think that you must. Or I’m going to slit your throat.”

“Do it, cur.”

Goro rotates his sword, swatting him on the side of the head with the hilt, “Don’t speak to me like that.”

“My apologies,  _ your Majesty _ .”

He tuts, “There’s no need to be such a sore loser.” Goro grins down at him, throwing his sword to the side and leaning forward to kiss him once.

“I was going easy on you.”

“Mm, of course you were. Honestly, if I didn’t like you so much, you’d be out of a job.”

“Good thing I’m so likeable then,” Ren sticks out his tongue. “Who taught you how to fight?”

“I should be asking you that question, because they have clearly done a subpar job.”

“For that you can blame Overseer Kamoshida.”

“I’ll tell my father to have him removed.”

Ren wraps his arms around Goro’s waist, pulling him down close, “Thanks.”

Goro snorts a laugh out of his nose, “You’re welcome. Sae taught me how to fight.”

“Of course she did,” he rolls his eyes.

“You say that like you knew her.”

“Well, she was famous. Everyone knew her.”

“I suppose,” Goro frowns. It’s an unavoidable fact that he and almost everyone he associates with are known throughout the Empire, but that doesn’t make it any more comfortable. He hadn’t even asked if Ren was okay with becoming public knowledge before hiring him.

Ren’s chest shakes with laughter, rousing him from his thoughts, “I can’t imagine she was a very forgiving teacher?”

He smiles at the memory, “Not really, no. She’d chew me out for hours if I were even an inch off in my stance. Yours is horrible by the way.”

“My stance?”

Goro nods, pressing a kiss to Ren’s forehead before getting up, “It’s almost offensive, really.”

Leaning up on his elbows, Ren pulls his mouth to one side, “I guess I don’t really care for what’s right or not. I just swing the thing.”

“And that,” he says, extending a hand for Ren to grab, “is why I beat you so easily.”

Ren smiles wryly at him, taking the hand and pulling himself up. “Rematch?”

“Why? Is your pride not bruised enough already?”

“Your words are hurtful, Goro,” Ren puts a hand to his chest, pout on his lips, before beginning to brush himself off.

He’s _so_ stupid. It’s adorable.

“ I could teach _you_ proper technique, if you’d like. Though I doubt it would help you.”

“If I say yes, will you cuddle up to me like I did you?”

Goro laughs, wrapping his arms around Ren’s neck, “You don’t have to pretend to give me a sword fighting lesson in the coldest part of the palace to touch me.”

Ren frowns, resting his forehead on Goro’s, “I thought it would be romantic.”

“Frostbite is not romantic.”

Ren sighs, “That’s why we huddle together. Like penguins, Goro!”

“I don’t know that it would matter much when you let me come out here without a coat.”

“Actually, you warm up faster if you take your clothes off-”

“No.”

“But, Goro-”

“No,” but he giggles as he pulls Ren in for a kiss. Ren welcomes him easily, pulling him closer at the waist and squeezing.

It’s so effortless, being with Ren, when they slot together like two pieces of one whole. It shouldn’t be, for both their sakes, it should be something that never crosses their mind. Or maybe an errant thought that Goro entertains for a minute or two. Perhaps an hour if he gets too lonely.

He’s brave enough to admit (to himself, not to Ren) that he needs it. He’s been so alone for so long, so touch-starved and hopeless. He’d been scared to imagine ever being happy like this, because it was never supposed to happen. It was never in any of his life plans to fall in love with his Royal Protector, and every time he thinks about how it might end, he wonders whether he should’ve stuck to them. Because it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt him irreparably.

Ren just might hate him if he finds out how much Goro thinks about the end.

But it’s easy, for now. To be touched, to be loved.

Goro opens his eyes, pulls away, just breathing Ren in for a moment while he still can. “I love you.”

“You say that so easily now.” Ren teases, a mocking smile on his lips, “I miss when I had to goad you into saying it.”

He rolls his eyes, “I take it back.”

“Nooo,” he whines, “babe.”

“You’ve gone too far this time,” he says, but he leans in for another kiss all the same.

“I love you too,” Ren says, whispering it into his mouth. Giving it to him like a secret, like Goro’s mouth is the safest place he knows. “I’d love you more if you let me win next time we have a match, though.”

“It’s like you don’t even know who you’re talking to.”

**Author's Note:**

> come see me on twitter @followedarrows if you want to see me spout nonsense at all hours of the day


End file.
